Faisal Kapadia

Some Lesser Known Facts About Faisal Kapadia

• Faisal Kapadia is a Pakistani singer, director, and music producer. He is popular for being a member of the Pakistani pop and rock band ‘Strings.’

• He was inclined towards singing and music since childhood, and started practising music at a very young age. He learnt classical music, vocals, and guitar.

• In 1990, during his college days, he along with his college friends Bilal Maqsood, Rafiq Wazir Ali, and Kareem Bashir Bhoy formed the music band ‘Strings.’ Initially the band sung with EMI Records. Their early efforts with synthesised sounds and rhythms were not instantly recognised, despite the fact that Strings sold 20,000 copies in its first week. A few years later, the band released their second album titled ‘2,’ which includes their first popular song ‘Sar Kiye Yeh Paha.’ This song earned huge critical acclaims for ‘Strings’ as a music band.

  

• After the release of their second album, the members of the group decided to take a break from the it to focus on their studied for the final examinations. In 2000, Faisal Kapadia and Bilal Maqsood decided to release a new song sos as to maintain the popularity gained by the band. The song was titled ‘Duur,’ followed by another song ‘Dhaani’ (2003).

• According to Faisal Kapadia, he met his wife, Seema, for the first time in the year in 1989. During a media interaction, while talking about his family, he said,I met her around the time when String’s journey was just starting. In 2000 my oldest son Armaan was born. He was born just when we’d just come back from shooting the music video for Duur. After that Jibran was born in 2004. So in these past 20 years, the kids have grown and now I really want to spend some time with them, and then see where and what I draw inspiration from.”

• The Pakistani singer and music composed marke his Hollywood debut in 2004. The band composed the song for ‘Najane Kyun’ for the film American superhero film ‘Spider-Man 2.’

• When the world was facing turmoil with wars generating headlines on terror serving as the lynchpin. America first attacked Afghanistan, then Iraq, and this year, Israel bombed Lebanon.Strings decided to create a simple yet powerful melody to depict the new world’s visage. It’s called ‘Beirut,’ and it’s captured the hearts and minds of Pakistanis. With the country so focused on the war, it’s a song that everyone can relate to. With a film that concentrates on visuals from the battle and taglines that provide statistics on how many people have died and how many others have been made homeless, ‘Beirut’ makes one ponder while humming along to it.

• Faisal Kapadia made his Bollywood debut with his music band ‘Strings’ in 2005. Faisal as the vocalist of the band sang the song ‘Ye Hai Meri Kahani’ for the Sanjay Gupta directed Hindi-language action thriller film ‘Zinda.’ In 2007, the band also composed the music for another Sanjay Gupta directed Bollywood film ‘Shootout at Lokhandwala.’ The composed the song ‘Aakhri Alvidaa’ which proved to be an instant hit. Later in 2013, Faisal Kapadia along with his team composed the song title ‘Charon Taraf’ for Ahishor Solomon directed film ‘John Day.”

• Faisal Kapadia making his debut sans Strings via Coke Studio 14 (2022). He considers it a turning point of his career because of Xulfi. Talking about his debut on Coke Studio, he said,
  

  The turning point for me was when I got a call from Xulfi. It was the summer of 2021, I was on a family vacation, he called to ask if I wanted to do this song and I told him, ‘Xulfi bhai, I never imagined myself making music after Strings.’ But that 30-minute conversation turned out to be so inspiring, I felt like destiny was calling me. The musician inside became excited again.”

• He made his debut with the song ‘Phir Milenge,’ which is a powerful and emotional, with a minimalistic chord pattern that is neither unnecessary nor overbearing. Faisal’s singing, his heavy voice, and the fiery, violent energy of Young Stunners transform the song into an ode to anybody who has ever loved and then abandoned them. In the clip, the three artists are seen walking through a maze filled with beautiful textures and memories displayed on walls. The singers travel together but never meet, hunting for objects left behind. Zeeshan Parwez, the director, and his daring crew shot the video in a single take.

• Faisal enjoys the experience he gets while working with Young Stunners, another Pakistani rap and hip hop duo consisting of the vocals of Talha Anjum and Talhah Yunus. He excitedly narrated his experience with them as
  

  It is important to evolve and try new things. The first time I met Young Stunners was on set, and I made them listen to a rap song Strings had made years ago when they probably weren’t even born!” For their part, Young Stunners don’t sound like Pakistani boys imitating Drake, they sound like clear-eyed city kids with something to get off of their chest. Add to that Faisal’s trademark croon, and we have a song that makes us feel like there is hope around the corner.”

  He added,

  I realised I had a lot to learn after CS, especially when working with Young Stunners. I’ve resolved to work with more new individuals, particularly young ones. I even instructed Xulfi to lead me throughout the song. Because there are many regions I have yet to explore. I’m not seeking for hits; I’m wanting to experiment and try new things. They say you’ve already lost if you haven’t tried. But if you try, there’s a possibility you’ll succeed.”

• Talking about how he takes inspiration from each and every thing, he said he strongly believe that it doesn’t matter if something is big or small, as long as it inspires him. Your life will be beautiful if every night you sleep while anticipating the morning because you want to do this thing again. This sort of inspiration can be found in anything, in sports or whatever you like. He want to wait for this moment, he is not in a rush. He just waits for things to inspire him and he want to keep learning.

• The vocalist explained that taking a break from the band was not something new to him or his partner Maqsood. They went back to the time of ‘Sar Kiye Yeh Pahar,’ when it was a smash in Pakistan and they were playing concerts, and it became necessary for them to take a vacation from everything to finish their schooling. They said to themselves, “You know what, we’ve done it before.” Now we need to take this permanent break and just call it off,” he explained. Talking about it, he said,
  

  Strings decided to end its journey last year, I personally feel we were really fortunate to have made that decision, …. In 1992, after releasing our second album Sar Kiye Yeh Pahar, we called it off, only to come back in 2000 to make more music. We did many seasons of Coke Studio too. But last year, we called it quits permanently after realising how far we’ve come and how much we don’t want to spoil.”